Even in a dominant 8-1 win for the Texas Longhorns on Friday against the Michigan State Spartans, star transfer Aiden Robbins was far from the player many saw as a preseason All-American.
He went 0-5, with his most notable at-bat coming on a fielder’s choice RBI. When seemingly every batter in the Texas lineup was red-hot, Robbins fell behind, seeing his other national award-contending teammates hit homers and steal the show in Austin.
But that didn’t seem to matter to Robbins when he woke up on Saturday morning.
In fact, when it seemed like no one on this roster was ready to contribute to an eventual 3-1 win for the Longhorns, Robbins stepped up, putting the entire offense on his back in a dominant night.
The score was knotted at 1 in Austin for the first six innings of play. Michigan State starter Carter Monke was dominant in the first seven innings of play, but Robbins was able to see the starter better than anyone else in the lineup, going 3/3 with the only RBI for Texas, coming on a triple in the third inning.
When Robbins stepped up in the bottom of the eighth inning, Texas was clinging to a 2-1 lead against the Big Ten program: far from comfortable as the No. 3 team in the nation.
Leading off the inning, Robbins worked a 3-2 count against the Michigan State reliever. The payoff pitch came, and Robbins launched it opposite field.
Texas fans were used to these swings heading foul. Not Robbins. His shot barely snuck into fair territory, a solo bomb, and the Longhorns were up 3-1.
It was his fourth hit of the game, and with another opportunity, he might’ve had a cycle. A near-solo domination of the MSU staff.
But in a low-scoring game where Texas’ pitchers controlled the MSU offense, Texas had done just enough to take home a 3-1 win.
Luke Harrison went just 4 1/3, but he allowed only one run from the Spartan offense.
From there, it was Haiden Leffew in his debut, Max Grubbs, and Thomas Burns in the save to win it for Texas.
Grubbs, in particular, was fantastic, throwing three innings of no-hit baseball, allowing just two total base runners on a walk and a hit by pitch.
Burns got the ninth, and even with a leadoff base runner, he shut the door on Michigan State, and Texas had won the series with the 3-1 win.
Texas moved to 6-0 with the win, having taken both of the first two series of the year, with plans of taking the sweep on Sunday when the two teams take the field one last time at Noon central time.